Reviews by kbuzz:

More User Reviews:

A-The brew pours thick and dark. The color is nearly black. A short dark-brown head gives way to a patchy ring of foam. Nice look for the style.

S-I smell a fair amount of whiskey and heat. The is some caramel, light vanilla, and mildly sweet dark chocolate. Lower on the malt than some of the style.

T-Taste is also heavy on the whiskey and a touch hot. Nice sweet, caramel and vanilla mixture with a lightly bitter chocolate note coming in towards the end. Finish is light oak.

M-The feel is on the thin side for the style.

O-This brew has potential. The whiskey character is right up front and a touch hot, but the booze is not overpowering. Flavor is decently complex, and the appearance is great, but the thin feel is a bit of a letdown. (806 characters)

Deep roasty coffee and toffee along side dark robust chocolate. Lots of NICE whiskey scents, not dominated by typical vanilla.

Thin, simi-sweet, chocolate flavors. Carbonation is a nice lighter side of things. Flavors are well rounded and complete. Toffee and caramel blend well with deep roasty chocolate. Thank goodness there's no smokeyness...

A nice BA Stout, but not one of best out there; needs to thicken up quite a bit.. Not quite deep and complex enough for top dog. Extremely flavorful and enjoyable though... Recommended even @ $17/22oz. (680 characters)

APPEARANCE: This is like black hole-dark. There is zero light escaping from it, even around the edges and even when held up to a bright light. A half-inch of head tops the beer, which is a bit of a surprise, but the light brown color provides a nice contrast. Retention-wise, the head hung around for a good minute or two and then slowly settled into a very thin cap that covered a good 90% of the surface of the beer. The lacing, however, is non-existent. Still, this is a very, very good looking stout.

SMELL: The aroma is a chocolaty delight. In fact, I can smell it as soon as I pop the cap and it only intensifies as I pour. As the head settles, however, and I really stick my nose into the glass, the chocolate subsides a bit and caramel moves towards the front, just ahead of a very light roasty smell and a bit of roast, a touch of oak just hint of boozy heat.

TASTE: A huge wave of dark chocolate and caramel hit the palate first followed a middle of vanilla, and some oak. The oak continues to build towards the end as roasted malt/coffee-like flavors, some tobacco and a boozy heat finish it off.

MOUTHFEEL: The chocolate and caramel early on make this a sweet beer to start, but all the more bitter flavors of coffee, tobacco and the oak really dry it out towards the end. The carbonation is kept to a minimum with a light tickle and the body is big, but not as huge as I would have expected this Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout to be.

OVERALL: I’m impressed with how well the barrel aspects of this beer have held up over the past year (or 10 months maybe?). Beer Advocate has this listed at 9.3%, which is the ABV of the regular Avarice, but I have to believe this is bigger than that. It is a boozy beer that got me pretty tipsy, pretty quick on just an 11 oz. pour after a big meal and no other booze in my system. Another barrel-aged beer and effort from River North. (2,021 characters)